2015 Boston Marathon Will Likely Have Field of 30,000

Update, Thursday, August 14: The Boston Athletic Association has officially announced the field size of 30,000 that we reported on Wednesday.

The Boston Athletic Association has provisional approval from the eight municipalities along the Boston Marathon course for the 2015 race to have a field of 30,000, B.A.A. Executive Director Tom Grilk told Runner's World Newswire Wednesday morning.

"At some level [the field size] is official," Grilk said the morning after presenting the plan for a 30,000-runner field to officials in Hopkinton, where the marathon starts.

A field of 30,000 would be an increase of 3,000 over typical recent years. This year's race had a field of 36,000, which was a one-time increase to accommodate the surge in interest following the bombings at the 2013 marathon.

Grilk said the likely increased field size for 2015 stemmed from the thought, "Can we accommodate some more qualifiers? Let's do it one step at a time. There's not an underlying subtext that this is a test" to annually increase the field size.

Registration opens for time qualifiers on September 8. Grilk said the B.A.A. is aiming for an 80/20 split between qualifiers and non-qualifiers. That's the B.A.A.'s usual goal; for this year's marathon, the organization sought a 70/30 split between qualifiers and non-qualifiers.

Grilk said the B.A.A. is currently discussing using four waves at the start, as occurred at this year's marathon, instead of the three used in typical recent years. "It does allow the field to be spread out more," he said.

Scott DouglasScott is a veteran running, fitness, and health journalist who has held senior editorial positions at Runner’s World and Running Times.

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